Wrench



(No Model.)

A. A. 8v P. E. LOWE.

WRENCH.

N0. 599,396. Patented Peb. 22, 1898.

a Z/ E @X3-Lineas@ llnirrnn Srn'rns Farrar Orrick,

ARTHUR A. LOWE, OF ABINGDON, AND PURLEY E. LOWE, OF GALESBJURG,ILLINOIS,

WRENCH.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent NO. 599,396, dated February22, 1898.

Application filerl December 22, 1897. Serial No. 662,970. (No model.)

To @ZZ whom, t may concern:

Be it known that we, ARTHUR A, Lows, residing at Abingdon, and PURLEY E.LOWE, residing at Galesburg, in the county of Knox,

State of Illinois, citizens of the United States,

have invented certain new and useful lmprovements in "Wrenches, and wedo hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exactdescription of the same, referencebein g ro had to the annexed drawings,making a part of this specification, and to the letters of referencemarked thereon.

The present invention has for its object to provide a simple, strong,and durable wrench,

and one that can be easily manipulated and conveniently adjusted witheither hand by a slight pressure of the finger upon the movable jaw andwithout the possibilit-y of the jaws spreading after adjustment; and itconsists 2o in the details of construction, substantially as shown inthe drawings and hereinafter described and claimed.

Figure l of the drawings is a perspective view of a wrench constructedin accordance with our invention; Fig. 2, a side elevation thereof,showing the movable jaw in section.

In the accompanying drawings, A represents the stationary jaw upon theend of the usual wrench-bar Il, which bar may be provided with asuitable handle of any preferred construction. This bar B has rack-teetha of any preferred shape and inclination or angle, as found best adaptedto the purpose.

The movable jaw C, which may be of any 3 5 desirable construction, isadapted to slide upon the bar B and is provided with a wormnut D, theworin thereon being of any desired pitch or angle to correspond with therackteeth and angle thereof upon the wrench-bar 4c with which saidworm-nut engages.

The worm-nut D has a conical end Znwhich engages with a correspondingsocket c,forrned in the jaw C, and at the opposite end of the wor1nnut Dis a stein cl,which entends through the bearingc of the movable jaw. Theouter extremity of the stem d terminates in a head f, and encircling thestem is a coiled spring g, located in the socket of the bearing c, saidspring bearing against the worm-nut D to 5o render it spring actuating.Any suitable spring may be substituted for that shown that will renderthe worm-nut spring-actuating for the purpose hereinafter described.

In forming the socket c for the reception of the conical end b of theworm-nut an elonga- 5 5' tion or extension 7c to the socket is provided,so that a space is left between the end of the conical end b and the endof the extension of the socket, so that said end will receive theweight, or, in other words, secure the desired 6o frictional contactbetween the parts and thus have the action of a wedge, the conical endbeing brought close up against the conical socket. The worm on the nut Dis of such degree of inclination that it will not resist the rotarytendency without additional friction. The advantage of such constructionis that the wrench may be instantly adj usted by the use of either handsinglyand alone, the worm being straight enough to revolve with but a 7oslight pressure upon the movable jaw. The required resistance to therotary motion of the wormuiut is found in the frictional contact of theconical end b with the sides of the conical socket c. The stein d hasloosely mounted thereon a washer or equivalent device fz, which islocated between the head f and the bearing e, said washer providingmeans by which the worm-nut and the stem thereof may be pulled back bythe washer So or other equivalent device t' when adjusting the movablejaw. The spring g holds the conical end b of the worm-nut in frictionalcontact with the socket c and thus prevents the rotation of the nut whenthe Wrench is not in use.

The worm-nut may be made in three separate sections-viz., the nut,conical end, and the stem-Y-and secured together in any Wellknownmanner. Howeveigwe reserve the right 9o to change or modify this or toconstruct the Worm-nut, conical end, and the stem in any manner foundbest adapted to the purpose without departing from the spirit of ourinvention.

In operation the wrench may be adjusted with either hand. The wrenchbeing grasped in one hand and with a slight pressure of the linger uponany part of the jaw O in a direction of the stationary jaw A will causethe roo wor1n-nut D to rotate through the medium of the rack-teeth a,with which the worm of the nut engages, thus carrying forward themovable jaw to decrease the distance between the two jaws, as foundnecessary.

lt should be observed that the jawC has a slight movement independent ofthe wormnut D, as shown in dotted lines of Fig. 2, so that thefrictional contact of the socket with the conical end of the worm-nutwill be removed, thus removing any frictional wear between the two whenthe worm-nut is in motion and providing` fora free action of the nutwhen rotated.

When the distance between the two jaws of the wrench is required to beincreased, the' worm-nut is pulled back by means of the washer i, whichis taken hold of by the fingers, the worm-nut at the same time rotatingand carrying with it the movable jaw, the conical end of the worm-nutbeing again removed from frictional contact with the socket while inmotion.

A wrench constructed in accordance with our invention is especiallyadapted to both light and heavy work Without danger of the jawsspreading, and the movable jaw may be quickly and conveniently adjustedto any point along the rack-teeth of the bar.

Having now fully described our invention, what we claim as new, anddesire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

A wrench consisting of a stationary jaw with a bar having inclinedrack-teeth, a movable jaw having a conical bearing-socket, a worm-nutadapted to engage with the rackteeth and havingaconical end to engagewith the socket, a spring for actuating the nut, a

stem upon the end of the nut and a washer or other device upon the endof the stem, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

In testimony that we claim the above we have hereunto subscribed ournames in the presence of two witnesses.

ARTHURiA. LOVE. PURLEY E. LOW'E.

Witnesses:

JOHN A. WILLIAMSON, EUGENE W. GLADHILL.

